Belgrade-based daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti published an article today entitled: „NOVOSTI REVEAL THE DANGEROUS PLAN OF LONDON AGENTS: Britain is forming its own Srpska Lista“, claiming that British intelligence agents are preparing the ground for a party which would be a counterpart to the most powerful Serb party in Kosovo and that Fatmir Sheholi is behind it. Sheholi did not deny the initiative which his institute has not yet launched – a meeting of all Serbian political representatives from Kosovo in Pristina, including Srpska Lista with the opposition in Belgrade. He, however, announced a lawsuit against Vecernje Novosti due to allegations made by this newspaper on his alleged connections with the British intelligence services.
„According to the order of the British intelligence officers in Kosovo and Metohija, ground for the formation of a new Kosovo Serb party is being prepared, which would be controlled from London, and it would represent a counterpart to Srpska Lista, which is a representative and the strongest Serbian political option in the province,” Vecernje Novosti reported.
According to the same newspaper, the goal of this project is to push out the influence of Belgrade in Kosovo and to integrate Serbs into Pristina institutions, but “with no possibility of real influence”, as well as to “create a climate of ‘common resistance’ to the idea of delimitation” – which, as Vecernje Novosti reported, would force Belgrade to realize that the recognition of Kosovo is the only solution.
“The main connection of the British in Kosovo is a political analyst and director of the Institute for Affirmation of Interethnic Relations, Fatmir Sheholi, whose task is to win over the most prominent Serbs in order to form a new party,” Vecernje Novosti wrote, adding that Sheholli will organize a gathering planned to be held in the Media Centre in Caglavica in mid-January 2019, where “the current state of affairs in the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina” will be discussed.
Some of the main representatives of the opposition – Vuk Jeremic, Dragan Djilas, Sasa Jankovic and Zoran Lutovac, as well as Kosovo Serb politicians, Slavisa Petkovic, Nenad Rasic, Rada Trajkovic and Aleksandar Jablanovic are expected to attend this gathering – Vecernje Novosti further reported, emphasizing that “the financial support” for this event will be provided by “British non-profit foundation IMAN”.
This daily claimed that “it is presumed that ideas about the delimitation of Serbia and Kosovo, represented by Thaci in Kosovo” will be criticized during this gathering, which would contribute to “the weakening of his position” and imply that the participants took “Haradinaj’s side”.
The IMAN organization is led by Ribal Al-Assad, a member of the famous Syrian family which include the two presidents of this country, the late Sadat and the current president Bashar – Vecernje Novosti reported, adding that Ribal Al-Assad visited the Balkans in 2016 at the „Mediterranean – geopolitics and integration, challenges and opportunities“ event held in Split.
This newspaper underlined that Sheholi came into public focus when he organized “a parallel, semi-private investigation” of Oliver Ivanovic’s murder.
“He hired 45 experts, and reportedly delivered all the collected data to the competent Pristina authorities and international representatives in KiM. It is also suspected that he was the one who launched the thesis that Belgrade is standing behind Ivanovic’s murder,“ Vecernje Novosti concluded.
Sheholi, however, told KoSSev that nobody from the newspaper Vecernje Novosti contacted him before this text was published. He denied these allegations and announced a lawsuit against the newspaper.
„Out of everything that was published in this text, the only thing that is true is that my name is Fatmir Sheholi and that I currently run the Institute for Affirmation of Interethnic Relations, which has its own board, assembly and branches in Mitrovica, Gracanica, Strpce and Pomoravlje,“ Sheholi stressed.
As for the announced arrival of the Serbian opposition in Pristina, Sheholi said that the board decided three weeks ago to „launch an initiative to try to bring opposition leaders and seat the representatives of Serbian parties across from them“.
„We want to call representatives of Srpska Lista. The board decided to invite some of the leaders of the opposition in Serbia with the aim that the Albanian and Kosovo society see the attitude of the opposition in Serbia toward the authorities in Belgrade and to hear what Serbian representatives from Kosovo had to say to the opposition in Serbia. Otherwise, it was planned for this debate to be broadcast directly on one of Kosovo’s television stations,“ he said, adding that the invitations have not been sent yet because the initiative has just been launched.
When asked about the reasons and the selection of the interlocutors, Sheholi said that the institute is engaged in the promotion of interethnic relations, and that they have now decided to invite all Serbian political parties registered in the CEC and that nothing bad can be seen in that.
Regarding allegations that he has connections with the British Intelligence Service, Sheholi said:
„I contacted a reputable lawyer in Belgrade immediately after the text was published and authorized him to sue the daily and let it prove everything they wrote before the court.“
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
